Queen Hortense eBook

The nuptials of Bonaparte and Josephine followed,
on the 9th of March, 1796; and the witnesses, besides
Eugene and Hortense, Josephine’s children, were
Barras, Jean Lemarois, Tallien, Calmelet, and Leclerq.
The marriage-contract contained, along with the absolutely
requisite facts of the case, a very pleasant piece
of flattery for Josephine, since, in order to establish
an equality of ages between the two parties, Bonaparte
had himself put down a year older, and Josephine four
years younger, than they really were. Bonaparte
was not, as the contract states, born on the 5th of
February, 1768 but on the 15th of August, 1769; and
Josephine not, as the document represents, on the 23d
of July, 1767, but on the 23d of June, 1763[4].

[Footnote 4: Bourrienne, vol. i., p. 350.]

Josephine acknowledged this gallant act of her young
spouse in queenly fashion, for she brought him, as
her wedding-gift, his appointment to the command of
the Italian army, which Barras and Tallien had granted
to her, at her own request.

But, before the young bridegroom repaired to his new
scene of activity, there to win fresh laurels and
renown, he passed a few happy weeks with his lovely
wife and his new family, in the small residence in
the Rue Chautereine, which he had purchased a short
time before his marriage, and which Josephine had
fitted up with that elevated and refined good taste
that had always distinguished her.

One-half of Bonaparte’s darling wish was at
length fulfilled. He had his house, which was
large enough to receive his friends. There was
now only a carriage to be procured in order to make
the general the “happiest of men.”

But, as the wishes of men always aspire still farther
the farther they advance, Bonaparte was no longer
content with the possession of a small house in Paris.
He now wanted an establishment in the country also.

“Look me up a little place in your beautiful
valley of the Yonne,” he wrote about this time
to Bourrienne, who was then living on his property
near Sens; “and as soon as I get the money, I
will buy it. Then I will retire to it. Now,
don’t forget that I do not want any of the national
domains[5].”

[Footnote 5: Bourrienne, vol. i., p. 103.]

As for the carriage, the peace of Campo Formio brought
the victorious General Bonaparte a magnificent team
of six gray horses, which was a present to the general
of the French Republic from the Emperor of Austria,
who did not dream that, scarcely ten years later, he
would have him for a son-in-law.

These superb grays, however, were—­excepting
the laurels of Arcola, Marengo, and Mantua, the only
spoils of war that Bonaparte brought back with him
from his famous Italian campaign—­the only
gift which the general had not refused to accept.

It is true that the six grays could not be very conveniently
hitched to a simple private carriage, but they had
an imposing look attached to the gilded coach of state
in which, a year later, the first consul made his
solemn entry into the Tuileries.